A Bittersweet Ending
by cordyangel14
Summary: Lily and James spend one of their last nights at Hogwarts together.


James took Lily by the hand and led her out of the common room and away from their friends without saying a word until until Lily spoke first.

"James, where are we going?" Lily protested.

"Shhh, it's a surprise," James replied, with a smirk on his lips.

"No, you have to tell me!" Lily insisted.

"You're really ruining the romance here, Evans," said James before placing a quick kiss on Lily's mouth.

"We have to hurry, or we'll be caught out of the common room after hours."

"Relax, Lily, we're graduating in a few days, why do you even care? Besides, I've got the Invisibility Cloak with me." Lily rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. James was right, she supposed. She allowed him to lead her outside of the castle. James stopped by the lake, in front of a tree where they had spent many afternoons studying and snogging in the tree's shade. James had carved "J+L" into it. Lily rolled her eyes at the idea, but thought it was kind of sweet when she looked at it afterward.

"Here it is!" James announced.

"What? What is it?"

"Your surprise! This is it!" he said as if it was obvious.

"The tree? James, we hang out by this tree every day," Lily said with a teasing grin on her face.

"Still ruining the romance, Evans," James remarked as he sat down on the ground and extended his legs in front of him. He reached up for Lily's hand and pulled her down to sit in between his legs. James wrapped his arms around her waist and Lily leaned back onto his chest. They stared out to the lake. The Giant Squid stuck its tentacle out of the water, as if it were waving to Lily and James. James lifted up his hand halfheartedly, partly to amuse Lily and partly because the aching nostalgic feeling in his chest made him feel like he was obligated to respond to the squid in some way. The two of them observed the magical world around them for a few minutes and reflected upon how much they would miss it after they left to start their lives.

"So what do you think about that flat in London? Do you like it?" James asked.

"Yeah," Lily said softly, putting her left hand on top of James' and interlaced her fingers with his. "I like it. Let's get it."

"Good," James murmured. "But it looks like we'll have to spend a month with our parents after school's out before we can move in. At least we'll be all moved in before Auror Training starts."

Lily groaned. "I was hoping last summer was the last time I'd have to live with Petunia."

"Hey, you can always come and live with me and my family until we can move into our apartment."

"Thanks, but I doubt your mother would like that very much. She already hates me for taking her son away from her."

"She doesn't _hate_ you," James said, as he used his finger to trace loops and swirls on Lily's arm.. "She just . . . hasn't gotten to know you yet. She'll come around eventually."

Lily just rolled her eyes, but James wasn't able to see it. The sun was almost completely set now and the air was warm, but not boiling like it was when the sun was out. A lump grew in Lily's throat as she realized this could very well be the last time she and James sat alone under this tree, just enjoying each others company. They'd have their own place, and would be Aurors and everything would be great, but she'd always miss the castle, the library, the common room, the lake, and everything else about Hogwarts. She wondered if James was thinking the same thing, because he got up rather quickly and said, "Let's sneak into the kitchens once more before we have to leave."

Lily and James scurried through the castle, stopping to hide under the Invisibility Cloak once or twice, as it was after hours. The two of them arrived at the kitchens breathless and giggling, having just narrowly escaped from Filch. Lily and James got some chocolate chip ice cream from the house elves and took it back to the Room of Requirement, where they sat on a couch in a plain room and talked about their plans for their last few days at Hogwarts.

Eventually they decided to go back to the Gryffindor common room to see their friends. They spent the next few hours laughing and joking with the friends that they had known for seven years.

The night grew longer and one by one, their friends went upstairs to bed, leaving Lily and James alone once again. They were sitting side-by-side on a windowsill overlooking the Quidditch field.

"I can't wait until we have our own place. Then we can be alone anytime we want," James said.

"Yeah, that will be nice," Lily agreed. "But I'll miss all of our friends once we're no longer living so closely."

"Don't worry about that. Most of them are moving to London, too. We'll see them all the time. Plus, we can apparate now. We'll see them all the time," James assured her. Lily smiled and rested her head on James' shoulder.

"Why don't we look at furniture for our apartment? We still need quite a bit," Lily said, and summoned the catalog that was lying on a nearby table. "Here, the ones I like are circled."

"That reminds me, I got an owl from my parents last night. They've got a couch that we can use, so we don't need one of those."

"Okay, well, what do you think about this coffee table? We can afford it."

"Um, yeah, okay, let's go with that one," James replied, feigning interest. Lily picked out furniture and James mumbled his approval for about fifteen minutes, when Lily decided to have some mercy on James. She put the catalog aside, and they went upstairs to the boys' dormitory. They tip-toed over to James' bed so that they wouldn't wake anyone up. James stripped down to his boxers and Lily changed into one of James' shirts, and for one of the last times at Hogwarts, they closed the bed curtains, curled up in James' bed, and drifted off to sleep.


End file.
